


So the Castle Falls

by specsi



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Archery, Character Death, Fantasy, Found Family, Illnesses, Injury, Mystery, Running Away, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25569727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/specsi/pseuds/specsi
Summary: Kai grew up in the Castle orphanage, raised to take on one of the roles in running the country. However to her, a future of living in the Castle didn't seem appealing at all. When told she needs to take on the one role she doesn't want the most, she decides to take the matters into her own hands. Except things don't go as planned. Forced to get by without much other education than what she was always told, she has to figure out what next all while the treat of overthrowing the rule and a civil war haunts her.





	So the Castle Falls

An arrow shot through the air, followed by the snap of a bowstring and hit the straw dummy target with enough force to rock it backwards. 

“Woah! I forgot exactly how great you are. That was all whoosh and swish and twish with that stringy thing and then it thunked into the circle so fast!” Tan said, waving his hands in wide circles and frantic gestures, flailing the wide sleeves of his white tunic around. He kicked his feet and hissed when their backs hit the stone half-wall he was sitting on, separating the training grounds from the walkway.

Kai threw a quick glance back at him as she grabbed another arrow from the brown leather stash on her hip and pulled the bowstring with quick precision. 

“Also, how do you hit the center every time? It’s so tiny!” he continued and leaned against one of the stone pillars standing in the half-wall, supporting the ceiling above the walkway.

“Not every time. That one was off.” she murmured, her right hand steadily pulling the arrow as far as it could go. The iron head rested against the right side of the simple bow and the only decoration, a blue tassel dangled from its top. 

“What?” he stilled and glanced at the target dummy with arrows sticking from the smallest black circle in the middle of its torso. “It’s in the center, that black mark, the center of the target?” he drew out, squinting.

“It’s off. I need to get the very center of the center.” Kai said. Letting out a breath, she let go of the arrow. It swished through the air and hit the target, almost in the center of the black circle. She huffed and pushed the short black hair out of her face, deciding to retie the lather strap holding them together. 

“There! It’s there!” he shouted and jumped off the wall. “Can we go now?”

“I’m surprised you could even see that through the bowl of hair on your head. Go cut it. The library dust is making it look more grey again. Like the shriveled old care-taker in the orphanage.” She turned back towards the targets. “And not quite. Go ahead if you want to. I’ll stay just a little longer,” she said, another arrow already drawn.

“Why?” He moaned and dramatically slumped back onto the half-wall, throwing his arms out. “I’ve been out for too long you know?” He glared at the clouds slowly making their way over to the forest behind the targets and allowing the sun to peak over the left wing of the castle. Even the wind was mostly blocked out as the castle enclosed three sides of the training grounds and forest the fourth. “The sun is burning me down. If we stay here for any longer I’m gonna turn into ash and it’ll be your fault.” 

She hummed, let go of another arrow and hit the center, pulled three arrows from the stash at the same time and drew them one after each other, holding the remaining ones pointed to the ground while shooting. The dummy didn’t even have enough time to rock back and forth between the hits. There was almost no space near the center of the target left.

“There. Are we done now?” he pointed to the target with eyebrows raised high up.

“No-” she started but was cut off by a sound of heavy leather boots thudding against stone, coming towards them from the left castle wing.

“Ah, look who the winds dragged in to ruin my day.” the person called as he walked towards the training grounds. “Tan, how rare it is to see you without your nose stuck in a book of childrens’ fairytales.” He leaned against the castle wall, crossed his arms in front of his perfectly white shirt with the perfectly tied string on perfectly fitting neck-line. He was pale enough to deny the existence of the sun and held his head tipped back slightly, looking down on everyone all the time, with enough confidence to claim the sun indeed is a lie.

“It’s called history and mythology,” Tan grumbled and stuck his hands in the pockets of his black pants.

“And I see you’re still wasting away your future, training to become military fodder. How original.” Oscar sneered, his sight narrowing onto the targets.

“Wait,” she turned around to face the pathway, holding out her hand. “Did no one ever explain to you the difference between the military corps and the elite squads? You know how one is in regiments and does formations, with the cavalry and the infantry and all those words you probably never heard, and the other are independent specialized squads? I’m so sorry you got such incompetent teachers,” she shook her head, on the verge of tutting at him.

“As if,” Oscar said with a clipped voice. “Those require you to have skills, you know. I’m just saying- it’s such a waste. The advisors love you already,” he sneered. “I’d just choose the highest administration position I could if I was you. There you might be able to actually change something.”

“Good that you’re not me then.” she shrugged before her eyes widened. “Hold your horses, are you still seriously hoping to get the throne?”

“Ideally, yes.” he said with a straight face.

“No,” she stared at him for a moment before bursting out into laughter. “Well, they’ll announce the heir tomorrow so better listen up. Such a shame if you were to miss out!” she said through the wheezing.

“You’ll eat your words, just wait. No one has studied this kingdom more than me. Name a thing related to it, or the administration and I can give you a full lecture on it. Working for the highest advisor makes you learn a lot, which you’d know if you tried. There is no one better to take the place.” Oscar said, head raised even higher somehow.

“Sure. Good for you. I’d rather not spend my life stuck behind stone walls, never actually seeing the kingdom, with the only goal being raising the next generation of loyal orphan-followers of the Crown,” she scoffed. “The Kingdom will support you - more like turn you into brainwashed sheep. No wonder none of you around here can appreciate freedom. Honestly, have you ever looked around? All of this,” she waved her hands around and scrunched her nose in disdain, “glimmering shit. I don’t want it. I will travel the world, see all there is and actually do something helpful.”

“Well, one less dumbass around the castle to worry about then.” Oscar stalked off towards the right wing of the castle without a glance back. “Also, the Head Gardener said your herbs are drier than your humour. You should probably go, do something about one of those at least, though the poor plants might be beyond salvation.” he called behind his shoulder before disappearing into the castle.

“Kai, don’t aim there, you’ll actually get him and then you’ll go to court as if he was a decent enough person to keep his head attached to his shoulders,” Tan said, turning around towards the targets.

“Not even a scratch? He was in the fields, his fault for getting in the way of a stray arrow,” she said, glaring at the door but lowering the bow.

“No,” Tan shook his head in resolution, folding his arms in front of him.

She sighed. “Just one more month,” thunk. “And then I leave,” thunk. “Join the special ops squad,” thunk. “And the stupid castle,” thunk. “With the stupid chandeliers,” thunk. “And the stupid silky robes,” thunk. “And the stupid embroided curtains,” thunk. “Will be out of my life.”

“We should probably go. It’s time to take a break.” he said, stood up from the wall, walked towards her and put his hand over hers, reaching back into the stash.

“Fine,” she grumbled and walked to the targets. Just as she was taking the arrows down from the target a call from the walkway echoed through the training grounds.

“Oi, kid!”

They both startled and immediately turned to the walkway, saluting with their left hand behind the small of their back and right hand in fist over their hearts. 

“Yessir!” Kai called back, recognizing her archery instructor.

“If you don’t actually put away your stuff today I’m making the squirt do it and won’t let you have it tomorrow!” he called, narrowing his sight at her and pointing to Tan.

“Yessir!” she called back with a firm nod, trying to look convincing. She stood in the salute as the instructor scoffed and walked away, his long silver hair flailing behind him in various braids and with feathers and blue strings tied in.

“The old geezer can be so dramatic,” she whispered as he closed the door behind him. After a few seconds, just to be sure, she dumped the stash and the bow behind the target. “I’ll come and get them later.” She nodded to herself before turning away.

“Kai, please no, I don’t want to be cleaning them” Tan droned out, dragging himself after her.

“Stop complaining, you won’t. Also, I’d be good if we manage dinner early so I have time to go bring my plants back from the dead,” she said, nodding to herself on the way towards the castle.

_________

Well, there was nothing to resurrect it turned out when Kai ran into a group of younger kids from the orphanage and their care-taker using her pots as the example of how not to do it. Future workforce for the castle, raised just to be loyal to the Crown. In her bitterness she skimmed over her own plant section and didn’t recognize it for a moment, until she realized the brown sticks used to be plants. Also coming closer she discovered the mess below the sticks were actually very crispy leaves. 

She glanced at the group surrounding the plants and tried to create an indignant look on her face as she accidentally made eye-contact with the care-taker. Somehow, that turned into a silent conversation.

Look at that disgrace.

I know, right?!

She shook her head as she swerved away through the rows of large wooden pots filled with all sorts of plants, towards a random patch that definitely didn’t look crispy and pretended to take diligent care of them. Once the group left the greenhouse she returned to her used-to-be herbs. There was nothing salvageable on those and she wished necromancy would be a thing. No such luck and so she set off to start all over again with new saplings. The wrath of the Head Gardener would be a problem for another day. There was also a chance her herbalism instructor would flunk her out at this point. Well, fifth time the charm… said no one ever, but they should.

At least she had enough practice in planting saplings so it didn’t take too long before she was back in the corridors of the castle making her way through crowds of maids and butlers and cooks and teachers in dark blue tunics and black pants. The chatter echoed through the long corridors and bounced from the stone walls. The castle and orphanage were overstaffed, she concluded as another uniform ran into her, this time the tunic white, and the face of the person hidden behind a book. With a quick ‘excuse me’ the person disappeared behind a corner sooner than she could have said anything. This many people in very flammable clothing surely must be a fire hazard with the torches flickering on the walls. She shook her head and narrowly missed running into a guard.

The insistent gushing about the Queen and the Throne seemed to follow her through the castle, anywhere with enough younger students. Nothing the administration would do could make the kids question them, proof of how well the system was designed. It worked a little too well for comfort sometimes. 

After almost getting lost in the corridors of the castle, she reached the end of one of them with wooden doors decorated slightly more than usual. She opened them and slipped into the smaller library - one of many, and ran her fingers over the backs of the books on the shelf to her left. The chances of anyone looking for her here were quite slim. More like non-existent, really. After a while of wandering through the shelves and avoiding the occasional dust cloud, she settled on some materials loosely related to her medicine lessons from the past week, in case the teacher actually managed to sniff her out and come to lecture her about studying. 

She found a table near one of the large windows, hoping to use the few last minutes of sunlight of the day in addition to the light of candle lamps. Except after only a few minutes of pretend studying the door opened with a bang loud enough to bring her dead plants back to life. She bit her tongue to hold off the swear just in case it really was one of her teachers. A glance towards the door confirmed that it was not and she let out the curse with satisfaction. The person rolled their eyes and upon closer inspection she noticed them wearing embroidered white shirt and white pants, the telltale sign of the Queen’s personal attendants.

“I apologize for the disruption, however Her Majesty the Queen is asking for you, miss, and because I couldn’t find you we’re very late now,” they said in a clipped voice, the annoyance radiating from the slouched stance and deadpan face.

…………………….

Their high position was the only thing keeping Kai from complaining as she stood up, but she took her sweet time putting away the book and dragging herself to the door, casting her spot one last remorseful look. The attendant shut the door behind them and scurried down the corridor with tiny fast steps. She followed a few paces behind, only then realizing the Queen herself was asking to see her right that moment. The stupid ranking system meant that she was quite high in position herself, however she was not this important by any means. The walk to the throne room was long enough for her to also realize that she didn’t want to be. The chattering was lowered every time they came close enough and the people in front of them parted to make way after a single look. Generally an envious, dirty type of look, and some condescending ones from the guards as well to top it off. 

The closer to the center of the castle they walked the more decorated the halls got. After leaving the parts dedicated to staff the torches turned into elaborate chandeliers with at least one dozen of candles on each of them, if not two. The thuds of boots against the floor dulled and turned into a shuffle as stone got covered by black carpets. Kai almost tripped one of the dark blue curtains, made from heavy fabric with elaborate silver embroidery, bunching up on the floor underneath a window. Once they reached the very central part of the castle, instead of simple stone, there was white marble everywhere. Even the clacks of boots against the floor sounded more expensive.

They reached a long open space at which end were massive white doors leading to the throne room, surrounded by a ridiculous number of guards in chainmail armour and helmets covering their faces. More ridiculous than usual, she noted with unease settling in the pit of her stomach. The attendant pushed the door open and motioned towards them with a tilt of their head, but didn’t follow when Kai stepped forward. Apparently she made them lose the last bits of patience they had as they pushed her into the room and shut the door behind her.

“Your Majesty,” she said with some hesitation, took a few steps forward and saluted with her left hand behind her lower back and her right hand in fist over her heart.

The white room, from the floor to the walls and the ceiling combined with the massive blinding chandeliers made the Queen’s black gown look even darker. 

“At ease,” the Queen responded with a wave of her hand after a beat of silence.

“Pardon my intrusion,” Kai said, resting both her arms behind her back. “And lateness,” she added after a bit of hesitation.

“No need for such formalities. Come forth,” the Queen said, sitting unmoving in the throne on a pedestal, creating an unnerving atmosphere. The two chairs to her sides with deep blue lining were empty and suddenly looked very humble in comparison to the massive decorated back piece of the throne

Kai walked towards the throne, at first hesitant to step on the dark blue carpet spanning from the door all the way to the steps of the pedestal. She looked around as she passed the seatings and balconies in the walls, lining the walls. She couldn't remember the throne room ever being this empty. 

Just as she was about to kneel down in front of the steps to the throne, the Queen stood up and held her long black gown as she walked down the steps. The silver embroidery glimmered in the light of the candles as she moved. The thin veil, held on her shoulders with silver clips, dragged down the steps. Her hair was braided into an elaborate pattern, decorated with a smaller tiara. She rounded the throne and walked towards the back of the room, giving only a slight nod as a signal to follow.

Behind the throne were still quite large doors with four guards in black leather armour with iron clips connecting its pieces together, standing on the sides. The Queen’s shadows, her personal guards. She stood a few paces away from the doors and gave another nod, this time towards the guards. They stepped towards the door, each pulling a key on a necklace from below their armour and inserting them into the locks on the door, turning them at the same time.

They pushed the doors open with soft criecks and waited for the Queen with Kai to walk in before closing it behind them. The room was lit only by the moonlight from a large window on the opposite wall. Both sides of the room were lined with shelves stacked with books from the floor to the ceiling. Below the window was a large stone pedestal with purple crystals around its bottom edge. She firstly thought it was just a reflection but then realized there were shining specs swirling inside the crystals. The whole pedestal was overgrown by a plant with thick green stems climbing over it, large pointy leaves and yellow flowers with petals in multiple rows. On the top of the pedestal was a large book with nothing on the cover and tattered pages. Frankly, it has seen better days in its life. 

“What is this?” Kai breathed out, taking the room in, before realizing it and stammered to excuse her improper language. In the corner of her left side she saw a table with stacks of papers and ink flasks.

“We’re in the heart of the castle, the spot it was built around,” the Queen said, interrupting her. She gestured towards the shelves, “In here you’ll find anything you could ever want to know, from the histories of the world thousands of years back, to maps and texts from other countries, to writings of the previous rulers of the kingdom,” she spoke softly as she walked towards the pedestal, running her fingers over the book.

“Thousands of years? Other countries? Pardon my rudeness, but that’s not-” Kai stammered, as good as rooted to the spot.

“There is much you’ll never learn outside of this room. Anything you do find here cannot be spoken of outside under no circumstances,” the Queen spun around, clasping her hands in front of her. “Do you understand that?” she asked with a low quiet voice, making it seem more like a statement. 

“Why are you telling me this?” Kai asked more somber with every moment as she grasped the weight of the situation. Nothing good was to come of this, she realized, albeit a little late. 

The Queen was silent for a few beats, running her sight over Kai before speaking, “Because you’ve been chosen the heir to the throne.”

“I- The throne?” Kai squeaked and promptly coughed into her hand in a futile attempt to cover it. “I meant, surely there must be people more prepared for such a role,” she stood a little stiffer at the cold sweat running down her back. 

“The advisors and I have decided and chosen you,” The Queen said, her face giving of nothing. 

“There must have been a mistake then.” Kai blurted out, and hurried to correct herself as the Queen raised an eyebrow in a silent question. “What I wanted to say is I don’t think I’m the person you’re looking for and there’s perhaps been an unfortunate misspell of names or something similar,” she said, her hands sweating more every second. It was getting harder to not take a step back and try to open the door. The probably last reasonable inside voice she had was telling her it would be a very bad idea.

“There is no need to worry about any such accidents. I hope you can imagine we were very diligent when making these decisions,” the Queen said, hints of amusement appearing in her face as her eyes crinkled and the corner of her lips ticked. It was gone in a matter of seconds though. “I stand by my words.” 

“There’s no- Why-” she let out with a breath, her eyes widening.

The Queen hummed and turned her head slightly, thinking about possibly the single answer she didn’t have prepared. “Interesting of you to ask that. I believe you’ll find out with time,” she looked back, satisfied with her response.

“With my utmost respect, Your Majesty, that makes no sense. All of this,” she gestured around the room. “That has nothing to do with me and frankly I’m still not sure I believe it all. I’m certain the kingdom will be better off with someone else.”

“It will all make sense in due time,” the Queen waved her hand, dismissing the concern. “I can assure you there’s a lot we need to go through and you’re going to need all the time you can get, so we should get started. There is so much you don’t know about,” she clasped her hands, signaling the end of the conversation.

“It’s a great honour, Your Majesty, but I don’t think I-” Kai said, determined to stop whatever was happening before it got any further.

“I think you’ve got the wrong idea here. I’m not asking. You were chosen to become the next ruler, there is no discussion to be held,” the Queen cut her off, any semblance of niceties disappearing in that instance.

“I don’t want to though. I don’t think I’m suitable for the position,” Kai said, hoping bluntness would serve her better than reasoning.

“Frankly, no one cares about what you want right now,” the Queen said, proving that it in fact wouldn’t. “It was decided and we’re not going to wait for your acceptance. This is a duty to the kingdom, not a gift. You were chosen to carry that burden and you are going to do so. The throne comes with many powers and responsibilities and the only ones allowed to have it are ones who don’t want it. In fact, you have proven yourself quite well so far, so I’d prefer we get to it,” she continued as she searched through the shelves.

“I don’t-” Kai raised her hands in protest.

The door burst open, barely avoiding her and she jumped away to the side. Into the room walked Oscar, holding a sword. He stopped a few steps in and gazed around. His eyes widened when they landed on Kai and his breath caught for a moment before he turned his head back to the Queen. Behind him stood one of the Head Advisors with red specks on his once white tunic. 

A group of around a dozen guards in full armour stood off to his side and one of the four Shadows was slumped against the wall a little further away with another one crouching by him. 

“Advisor what is this?” The Queen said, keeping her voice even, her sight locked on the Advisor.

“You’re surrounded,” Oscar proclaimed with a triumphant smile. “The kingdom has suffered your rein long enough. The abused and neglected citizens deserve better. We are taking back what rightfully belongs to us. From here on the castle shall be under my rule. I order you to give up the crown. No resistance will be of merit.” He grinned looking as if he expected a pat on the back. 

The Advisor was tapping his foot and narrowing his sight as Oscar droned on. The red puddle around the slumped guard was getting bigger with every word.

“I’ll only ask once more, explain yourself, Advisor.” The Queen said, the air in the room somehow turning icy.

“You should have listened to me!” Oscar shrieked. “Guards, arrest her for defiling the crown,” he pointed his sword at the queen.

A shout came from the throne room and the back rows of the armoured guards had drawn their swords and joined the fight in a split second. The sounds of iron against iron echoed through the throne room. The Queen grasped Kai’s hand and pulled her behind as she outstretched her hand in front of both of them, towards Oscar. He and the Advisor were thrown back into the group of guards toppling over the front row. 

Kai pulled from the Queen’s grip, stumbling out of the room into the throne room. She froze when she saw three of the Shadows and a handful of regular guards trying to hold off the Advisor’s group. Then her sight fell on the guard slumped against the wall and her breath got caught in her throat. There was too much red all around the white floor. 

Oscar untangled himself from the guards and ran towards the Queen, pointing his sword. One of the Queen’s Shadows separated from the fight in the back, leaving three of the Advisor’s guards sprawled on the floor. It wasn’t fast enough to reach the front on time.

The Queen sent a panicked look towards the Shadow. She mouthed something and the door shut in front of her. The next moment Oscar ran into it, barely catching himself from barging onto the sword.

“Run!” The Shadow grabbed Kai’s hand and pulled her away, towards the exit, as the rest of the room froze, staring at the door.

The sword got caught in blue crystals forming rapidly from the bottom of the door through the crack all to the top, around the edges and over the sword. Oscar jumped away just as the crystal covered the handle.

Kai cast a glance at the blue crystal covering the wall where the door used to be as she was pulled out of the throne room by the guard. They ran through the large hall and her feet caught on the edge of the carpet. The guard pulled her forward as she tried to fix her footing and get used to the tempo. 

The castle became a blur of light and black and blue as Kai dashed down a flight of stairs, around a corner and barely avoided a server with a stack of plates. The guard kept pulling her through the usually less frequented corridors, most of which were completely empty this time of the night.

They made a few more turns and reached the familiar stone floors and torches before the sound of stumping caught up with them. Kai heard the guard scoff. They stopped when Kai caught a glimpse of someone behind them as they rounded another corner.

The guard turned to where the stumps were coming from and threw Kai in the opposite direction. “Go! My job is to keep them back. We’ll find you.” She said, shoving Kai away to make her move. 

The guard stepped into the middle of the hallway, grasped her sword in front of her and faced where the followers would soon appear.

“I said go!” she screamed, glancing back at Kai. “The hall is narrow enough, they’ll have to come one by one. We’ll find you later, just go and hide well somewhere!”

Kai stumbled backwards when she saw the guards coming and set off down the hall, glancing back just as the swords hit the first time. After rounding the next corner she reached a corridor ending with a wooden door leading to the walkway by the training grounds. She stumbled through and ran down the walkway. Once she reached the archery training grounds she jumped over the small wall separating the yard from the corridor. She froze when she spotted someone behind one of the targets. The person shot up from their crouched stance and glanced at her.

“Kai? Oh, thank the damned spirits it’s you. Why is your instructor forcing me to clean up after your practice again?! Come on!” Tan grumbled as he returned to picking up the bow and arrow stash from the ground.

She ran towards him and grabbed both from his hands, tossing the bow and stash over to hang down her shoulder.

“We need to go, now!” she grasped his sleeve and pulled him towards the forest, glancing briefly at the door she threw open.

“Go? What?” Tan stumbled before standing firmly in his spot. “You look like you saw the old Kings themselves rise, take a breath so you can actually tell me what is this,” he shook his head and looked her over grimacing at the crumpled clothes and messy hair.

“No time,” she said between heavy breaths, pulling on his sleeve. “All of this is a lie. There is more. Countries, borders, history! So much! We need to leave now!” she was starting to get more frantic with every second they stood out in the open. 

Tan tried to pry his sleeve from her hand. “Okay, this is a very weird joke and not really funny I have to say,” he grumbled, taking a step back towards the targets.

“Not a joke, the Queen’s gone! The castle will soon fall!” She threw out her hands in exasperation. “An Advisor betrayed the kingdom! We need to leave now!” she reached for his sleeve again.

“Are you-” Tan froze.

“Stop her! Stop the deserter!” A shout from the castle echoed. “She killed the Queen! Stop her no matter what it takes!” more followed and soon echoes of stomps could be heard too, louder by the second.

“Wha-” Tan turned to her with wide eyes pulling away as fast as he could.

“I didn’t. That wasn’t me,” she started back at him equally shocked. “Please you’ve got to believe me. We need to go.” she pleaded glancing between the door, forest, Tan and back at the door.

He cast a quick glance behind him, turned to her and pushed her down into the forest with as much force as he could muster. She fell to the ground, into bushes, behind the targets.

“Run!” he forced out between his teeth before turning to the door just in time as guards came running towards the small wall.

“To the left!” He called gesturing towards the left wing of the castle. “She ran inside, to the main gate!” He cried even louder, pointing opposite from the forests.

“Someone has to stay here.” he whispered through clenched teeth as he kept flailing his arm towards the castle. “Now go before they come here!”

She scrambled from the ground, praising the night like never before and ran into the forest, crouched down, stumbling down the hill, over bushes and branches, catching on trees to not fall completely. She lost sight of the castle soon enough and only straightened up a while after that, keeping the pace as fast as she could. She could barely see through the dark anyway, so the tears in her eyes made no difference.


End file.
